August 28, 2012

Estonian ministries want 333 mln euros extra budget funds for 2013

Estonian ministries have sent extra applications to the finance ministry to boost the budgets of their governance spheres for the year 2013 by hundreds of millions of euros as compared to the initial state budget plans, LETA/Eesti Päevaleht writes.

"Before the negotiations between ministers, finance ministry had received extra applications for 172.5 million euros," finance ministry spokesman Rainer Laurits said. "82.2 million euros of it was applied for personnel costs – for wage growth and creation o new jobs," Laurits pointed out a shocking fact. This means that ministers wish to create more jobs instead of reducing staff.

Finance minister Jürgen Ligi said that actually the extra wishes of ministers have grown already to 333 million euros. "It naturally makes me sad that although I have for years shown that I don’t hide money and treat all equally, they go overboard with extra applications. The applications are not in line with the real situation in the administrative sphere," said Ligi.

Ligi said that we are still a decreasing nation and thus the state apparatus cannot grow. The state also has to be careful in increasing spending because of the deteriorating European economic forecasts. "Once we have clarified the situation in the government, the wishes for extra jobs and 20% wage increases will hopefully disappear by themselves," said Ligi.